Still here...still waiting

Unfortunately, I don't have much more of an update than that. I'm still in Washington D.C. and still counting on our trusty health care system to send me on back...Wait, is that why I'm still here??

Here are few things I've entertained myself with over the last month- I'll keep you posted (when!) something changes.

Welcome Back

Is anyone still out there?!! If so, I not only applaud your perserverance but also fully expect that you're probably asking me that same question...

Well, where have I been? In short: my site, San Jose, my site, San Jose, my site, Washington D.C. In that order. (If only the time had passed that quickly...) Loooong, boring story short, mid-July I began having some abdominal pain and sought medical treatment. One doctor lead to another which lead to a week then three weeks in San Jose. After a slew of tests and the ol' college try, Peace Corps Washington and the Office of Medical Services decided to ship me out to our nation's capital.

Which, brings us up to today. I am currently in D.C. since Aug 24th going through the "med-evac" process of dr. appts and tests. I am hopeful and confident that the doctors here will be able to diagnose and treat me (by Oct 7th!), so I can continue on in the land of "pura vida."

I apologize for the hiatus...welcome back!!

Catch Up

Given that almost a month has passed since I last shared...I´m going to expedite the process and just describe the day after the last post, and today.

June 14th: Guides & Scouts. (Scouts is a little different here because both boys and girls are in the same "troop;" the only separation is by age). So I arrive at the grand Catholic Church of San Vito to the troop meeting with a lady from UNICEF and am immediately asked, "You`re the one giving the charla (activity) today, right?" Not having anything prepared nor knowing anyone was expecting a charla of any kind, my blood pressure began to rise.

(Keep in mind this was also a Sunday afternoon after a long 2nd week in site... What ever happened to Sunday, Funday?!)

The lady and I look at each other, nervously giggle, and launch into planning mode. Ten minutes later we had the kids discussing and drawing representations of their rights as children. Activity, check! It`s truly incredible what can be done with recycled paper, markers, and 30 singing voices...

So incredible in fact, that they can inspire you to dance. No sooner had they finished presenting their drawings than they began forming a large circle around me, singing a scout song (with my name inserted) until I danced (the dance that goes with the song). If I had known the song or the dance, this might have been a slightly more pleasant experience. At least I would have been on key...

July 9th: Teen Pregnancy. Today was the 2nd day of a 2 day training on how to teach sex education to adolescents. (very sparse in CR) All of the information was presented in a participatory manner and lunch was included! It`s not everyday you get rice topped with potato chips and a side of tomatoes for free, you know. I generally dread all-day meetings/activities because it`s difficult to understand everything thats happening for such a long time- let alone trying to make a somewhat intelligent (read: understandable) remark in reply. But, the activities were surprisingly fun.

Especially the one where we had to label detailed photos of male/female reproductive organs in groups of two. My partner was my male boss. Maybe if I had known just one word in Spanish for any part of the diagrams, it would have seemed more comfortable. Same goes for their functions... So much for proving myself as a competent professional. (I swear I know what that is!)

So now we are up to speed. In between those two days has been a lot of the same, a lot of time alone, and a lot of normal, everyday events. I feel I`ve been glorifying the awkward events a bit... but those are the most interesting ones to read and share. This is NOT to say, however, that every single moment of every single day something fantastic and crazy happens either.

Happy belated 4th. I have a cell phone!

Gotta Start Somewhere

Now that I´m officially into my service, and without a schedule, boss, friends, office or (for all practical purposes) plan, I´ve had to perfect the art of allowing things to just happen. Which, as I´ve learned, is a lot easier said than done. So to get the ball rolling, I´ve been introducing myself to whomever I can find to talk to and participating in absolutely whatever activity is offered to me. Here are a few examples of how that strategy has worked out:

These are FIRST sentences of conversations I´ve had:
1. What religion are you? 2. What´s wrong with your skin? 3. How much do you weigh? 4. Do you have any children? (immediately followed by why not) and 5. You´re fatter than when you came (direct translation- this one happened in training)

Needless to say, not all of these chats blossomed into meaningful relationships...

On to activities:
Last week I was invited to an all-teacher 4 hr meeting, where I was teamed up with the pre-school staff to make 35 mini-dry erase boards for the school. Aside from sitting alone in awkward silence and being critiqued for the amount of glue I was using, things were going pretty well. Then it was time to laminate.

Anyone who knows me, knows that arts n crafts aren´t really my forte. So, needless to say I was pretty nervous. But, like every other daily activity here, I just went for it desperately seeking the approval of the group...

Wrinkles. Three in fact, and they were big. I quickly grabbed a scissors and tried to smooth them out (unsuccessfully) and shoved the board into the middle of the completed stack. Like a child trying to get away with spilling on the couch by covering it up with a pillow, Mom found out. Only in this case, Mom was a kindergarten teacher who held up the board for all to see before saying "how ugly! who did this one?!" If my face hadn´t turned 4 shades of scarlet, I may have gotten away scott free. I´m pretty sure that little stunt did not win the approval of the group.

But tomorrow was another day. And shockingly enough, I received another invitation from some of the teachers (not preschool) to play soccer on their league. Here was a chance to redeem myself. Well, we lost. 11-0. And apparently, I don´t understand as many Spanish soccer commands as I had thought. After the game, there wasn´t much high-fiving as they were reminding me to "mark my man." Thanks for the retrospective advice.

So fine, it had been 2 long weeks and I was really looking forward to laying face down on my bed when my counterpart invited me out to celebrate the administrative assistant´s b´day. Accept every invitation. So I went, and tt turned out to be a lot of fun! Granted I couldn´t understand 75% of what was being said because of the music, but fun! One of our friends even took pity on me and taught me how to merengue and salsa dance. After a few hours I was feeling pretty dang confident and like I really had it down. Finally, a chance to blow off some steam- things were looking up!

So feeling rejuvenated, I decided to go to the Municipality meeting this morning. Waiting outside of the meeting room, a police officer walked up to me and introduced himself as the boss of police for the region. Wow- an important person to meet and finally I didn´t have to initiate the intro!

"Were you out dancing last night?" he asked. "Umm (gulp) yeah." (my face returning to 4 shades of scarlet) "You´re not from here right?" "No, I mean, well I live here now but no I´m not actually from here." "ok, yeah. You know I wasn´t sure at first when I saw you last night because there are sooome white people here, but after I saw you dance, I KNEW you weren´t from here."

Balloon deflated... On to week 3.

p.s. I also found out that there will be a newborn in my house in 3 months. Yikes!

Some good-byes are easier than others

I'm sworn in! And have officially begun my 2 year journey in southern Costa Rica. It's so comforting when the transition between the intensely scheduled 3 months of training surrounded by close friends and staff, and the arrival in your new site alone knowing no one is smooth, calm, and free of unforeseen mishaps. I am still waiting for that comforting feeling.

Sunday morning I decided, somewhat last minute, to take the bus at noon instead of 8:00a.m. for San Vito. Why not take advantage of my last morning in San Antonio, reflect on the last months, and properly say all of my good-byes? And heck, while I'm at it, why don't I just go to the station early to buy my ticket so that I can arrive stress-free knowing I have a seat? So that's what I did.

On my way home, I was the only person on the bus. How great to take my last ride in peace and quiet. As I was looking out the window, remembering all the happy times spent in each place with friends and fellow volunteers, I saw up ahead a fire truck and a couple of ambulances. Hmm. There was no smoke, no fire. Not even a car accident. Across the street there were gathered 50+ people all craning their necks to get a look at something on the other side. And that's when the good-bye to San Antonio became a little easier. A man had hung himself from a billboard along the main street in my town.

With a queasy stomach, I returned home, had my last breakfast with Dino, said my good-byes and was off. Awkward, bulky luggage in hand, I boarded the 6 hour bus still feeling a bit nauseous. So I reached into my backpack and grabbed out a little treat to take my mind of feeling ill. I mean, what better way to cure nausea than to eat dark chocolate covered coffee beans? A lot of them. In retrospect, this was not a good idea. I spent practically the entire curvy bus ride with my head between my legs dry heaving into my purse.

When we finally stopped for lunch, I could do nothing but find the nearest plastic table to put my head down hoping my head would stop spinning. That also didn't work. So, I boarded the bus once again and we continued for 3 more hours. That was when the transmission decided to stop working on the bus. Less than 5 miles from San Vito, the bus broke down and the luggage compartments would not open.

Two hours standing along a highway when you are not feeling good, feels longer than two hours- who knew? So, finally after much discussion and unsuccessful attempts to fix it, the driver called another bus and we grudgingly boarded without our luggage. Finally I arrived in San Vito, contacted my extremely worried host family, and stood in the rain with the worst headache of my life waiting for my sister to pick me up. That is when I leaned forward and puked.

But, I'm here now! And feeling a little bit better. The past days have been filled with lots of awkward meet n greets (including getting thrown under the bus at a UNICEF meeting when the representative asked me to stand up and explain Peace Corps), school visits, and watching Costa Rica spank the U.S. last night in soccer. It's been a crazy first week but I'm happy to finally be down with training and look forward to the next 2 years.

It´s the Final Count-Down!

For 2 reasons: a) I officially swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on Friday at the Ambassador´s house in San Jose which means training ends! and b) because that is the song that my neighbor´s have chosen to repeat on Guitar Hero almost every single night.

Here is an assortment of pictures from my new site which I visited last week. I will be moving there permanently starting this Sunday for the next 2 years! (ahhh and wooo!) If, over the last few months, you have had an inkling like you wanted to send me something in the mail...NOW would be the time! I would love anything to decorate my bare walls and remind me of home (or of anyone I´ve ever met before).

My neighborhood is rural, quiet, rainy, mountainous, has lots of coffee plantations (I can see one out of my front door), friendly people, and lots of opportunities in which I hope to be of at least some use. A lot of these center around after-school recreation programs, collaboration with the local PANI office to prevent teen pregnancy and drug consumption, a micro-enterprise for single mothers, and groups for the local indigenous population.

It´s hard to believe this intense 3 months of training has almost come to an end. Barring I make it through a series of final interviews, one last Spanish class, and don´t wear flip-flops to the Ambassador´s house...I made it!

Thank you for your support up until now and don´t be a stranger! Starting Sunday, I will have a loooooot of (alone) time on my hands. The only goal set forth by the Peace Corps for the first 3 months of service is to integrate myself into my community. And write a 30 page Community Assessment Tool in Spanish.

Can´t wait to hear from you!

New Home

Location Location Location

After much anticipation, the mystery has been solved and I finally know my site assignment. On May 30th I am moving to a small town of 1,200 people just south of San Vito, Puntarenas. As any map will show you, this is very close to the border of Panama in the southern coastal mountain range. Woo hoo, a cooler climate!

This Thursday I am going to a retreat center about 45 minutes outside of San Jose to meet my future counterpart (A Costa Rican from the local PANI office near my site). We will spend two days there doing a series of uncomfortable ice breakers and "get-to-know-you" games, and then hop a bus for an even more awkward 7 hour bus ride toward the southern border.

After we arrive arm-in-arm as new best friends, she will take me to my future host home to meet my new family. All I know now is that I will have a host mom and dad, host sister who teaches Special-Ed at the school (yay Jess!), a 12 year old sister, and a 4 year old brother. Needless to say, quite different than my current set-up. But, I´m really looking forward to the change and excited to see my new home.

Of course it goes without saying that I´m also incredibly excited to (attempt) get through the series of meet-n-greets with every family, teacher, neighbor, pet, farmer, and child in this rural town as well. Here´s hoping something stuck from Spanish class... (and that there isnt an innate fear of white girls)

So, yay! Mystery solved. After returning from this next visit, we have a teeny, tiny bit of training left, a family party, and the swearing-in ceremony at the Ambassador´s house. Amazing how time flies when every second of your life is planned out. :) Start buying your tickets if you´d like to visit!!